Designing a web and mobile solution for Brick, a crowdfunding real estate investment startup.
My role
UX/UI Designer & Researcher
Teammates
CEO
CFO
Lead Designer
Programs used
Figma
UserTesting
Asana
The Product
Brick was a fintech startup that aimed to allow budding real estate developers to raise money to fund real estate projects via crowdfunding.
My Contributions
I conducted extensive user research, made personas, gathered requirements to understand the vision for the startup, outlined user journeys, and made high fidelity wireframes in Figma.
Step 1
Our fintech started as a simple idea: we wanted to improve the way that people raise money to start small businesses. I conducted user interviews with industry experts and potential end users to validate our idea. It changed and changed over time, first starting as a (somewhat sketchy) idea to raise millions of dollars to buy skyscapers in New York City, to eventually landing at the idea of a SaaS platform that allows users to browse future real estate locations and invest in them much like a retail shopping experience.
The research I conducted gave us resounding feedback that this idea was valued and needed . This gave us the confidence that we needed to begin moving forward with the project.
Many startups fail by not validating their concepts.
Step 2
I then decided to conduct more user research to begin better understanding our target users after our proof of concept was established. I utilized surveys and focus groups in order to gather qualitative data, and then used user interviews to extract quantitative data.
Anthony Roberts
Aspiring Small Business Owner
Anthony works a 9 to 5 job but wants to run his own small business. However, he would have to risk taking out a substantial loan from a bank with a hefty interest rate. The risks are immense and could be catastrophic to his personal financials if his business ends up folding.
Demographics
Male.
40 years old.
Works a 9 to 5 job.
Motivations
Wants to quit his day job and pursue his dream of owning a small business.
Believes in the value of small businesses for the economy.
Wants to support his community with high-quality goods.
Pain points
"The only way I can get enough money to start my dream business is by taking a huge loan from a bank. That sounds so scary, risky, and stressful!"
"I'll have to start paying back my loan right away! How will I even be able to do that? I need a way that requires less financial burden up front."
"All of this risk makes it seem so impossible to start a small business. I guess I'll just wait till I win the lottery or something…"
Goals
Acquire capital in a more forgiving and risk-adverse manner.
Launch his business with more confidence.
Tom Kellers
Potential Investor
Tom likes to invest his disposable income into short term and long term investing strategies.
Demographics
Male.
~30 years old
Makes $100k+
Motivations
Wants to invest in a stable and reliable long-term solution.
Open to investing in new ventures and platforms.
Believes in the value of small businesses and is glad to support them.
Pain points
"I need a safe way to invest my money long term, however I don't trust the stock market much any more. I wish there was another way."
"I'm really weary of getting scammed. I have to be 100% certain that an investment opportunity is legitimate before I pull the trigger."
"I need to know that a business owner is competent and that his plan makes sense in order to invest. I can't invest in bad ventures!"
Goals
Make money from a secure, long-term investment.
Support small businesses.
Step 3
Now that our proof of concept had been validated, and we knew who our users were, it became time for me to make a fully detailed Information Architecture that captured all of our requirements. This process technically began during Step 2 but was further excelerated after I completed user research. I built our Information Architecture by
Conducting user interviews with potential users
Holding design brainstorming sessions with the team
Conducting competitive analysis and searching for inspiration
This allowed us to keep track of all of our requirements and outline a very clear plan for our product within a manageable scope.
Always outline projects before designing!
Step 4
By this point I knew that our product had a place in the market, I knew who our users were, and I had a detailed outline for our product. Thus it came time to begin wireframing, and I was able to wireframe in rapid time because I had carefully maintained our requirements. I used our personas to make the following designs based upon their needs.
Anthony Roberts
Small Business Owner
We decided to design
a page where Anthony can list his property
because
he needed a way to display his business idea and subsequent documents to potential investors.
We decided to design
a page where Anthony can view all of his properties at a glance
because
a small business owner could have multiple properties listed and would want to see how each of his properties are doing from a top-down view.
We decided to design
a visible profile that Anthony could build out
because
establishing his legitimacy as a competent business owner, as opposed to some random person on the internet, could instill confidence in potential investors to pull the trigger.
Tom Kellers
Potential Investor
We decided to design
a page where Tom can view listed properties
because
he needed a way to browse potential investments and choose the ones he wanted to invest in.
We decided to design
a page where Tom could view all of his investments at a glance
because
an investor could have multiple ongoing investments and would want to see the status of each of his investments from a top-down view.
We decided to design
a space where Tom could view profiles of business owners that had properties listed
because
he may be more motivated to invest in a business owner, as opposed to simply investing in their properties, if they seemed competent to him.
We then used the above list of persona needs to produce the following designs.
My time at Brick taught me how to
Conduct preliminary research for a brand new product.
Translate said research into tangible designs in Figma.
Lead usability tests in order to verify my designs.
Work in an agile fashion.
You can reach me at cemallatifozgur@gmail.com with any inquiries :)